I'd agree with your analysis of GoW. I'll be the first one to say that the actual gameplay and controls are fantastic. Gears plays like I'd expect a AAA shooter to play. while not the first game to use a cover system they are the first game to do it well IMO. and the Single player/co-op modes as you said are extremely enjoyable and very well done. I would have appreciated a little more depth to the story, even if it came in the form of a video at the beginning of the game but that's not a big deal.
Its simply the online play that is problematic and again it's not even the gameplay, or level design, those are both very solid IMO, it's all in the lobby, match making, and customization. Once you're in a game with the teams how you want them it's quite fun online, but unless you're prepared to go 19 rounds per game it's over as soon as it starts and you have to go back to jumping through fiery hoops to find your team mates and get the game setup again.
The game mechanics are solid, but playing online you spend more time setting up the match then you do actually playing, and once you're playing it usually isn't setup the way you were hoping.
Your definition certainly makes sense, I was using "casual" as the gaming antithesis of "hardcore" in my argument; someone who plays games causally, rather then someone who plays causal games. Perhaps a better term would be to describe them as an "occasional" or "light" gamer.
I guess now the question is... does "hardcore" mean what we think it means? That is to say does "hardcore" mean someone who plays hardcore games, or someone who plays games, hardcore? I would think it means the latter, and if that is the definition, I stand by my assertion that the number of gamers who play with hardcore frequency is higher now then it's ever been. I find it interesting that you cite the community behind the hardcore casual game crowd, as I strongly believe it's the community aspects of modern games that are the driving force behind creating more and more hardcore gamers.
DDR was created by the Japanese... they like their extra ridiculously difficult/impossible modes. The hardest settings/songs on DDR are far and wide more difficult then the hardest settings/songs on GH (I've played them all).
Not to mention as long as you've got some good rhythm, dexterity and time to practice you can perfect most GH tracks on the hardest setting. DDR has far more strenuous physical requirements on top of that, not to mention the precision needs to come from your legs and feet, which are far more difficult to make precise movements with then your fingers, particularly when you're exhausted from essentially running in place.
On another note I think you've helped identify why GH is so much more popular then DDR. It has nothing to do with the genre or the fact that you play with your hands instead of your feet, and everything to do with the stigma that dancing is lame but playing the guitar is cool. Same can be said for JPop/Techno vs Rock/Metal respectivly.
I think the point the GP was trying to make (and I agree with) is that contrary to what the article is claiming "hardcore" shouldn't be based on the types of games being purchased. IMO "hardcore" describes the amount of time someone sets aside out of the rest of their life to game.
If you only ever play Happy Feet, Cars, Open Season, and countless other cheap poorly rated franchised games but you play them every waking moment, I'd say that you're a hardcore gamer.
A casual gamer doesn't pre-order games, I'm sorry, casual implies that they were walking by the store and saw a cardboard cut out that drew them in, or played the Guitar Hero kiosk and decided it might be fun for their next party. The kind of person that maybe plays a game among friends every other week or so. The kind of person who would pre-order a game, particularly something that is far below AAA status, the kind of person who would wait in line for hours to play WiiSports and Zelda, these are not casual gamers, these are hardcore gamers.
Lets change the context... would you consider someone any less an alcoholic if all they drank was cheap mass produced beer? Uncultured maybe, but certainly not any less "hardcore". By the same measure if someone drank every night after work would you consider them a "casual" drinker? Would you consider someone who waited outside the liquor store before they opened a "casual" drinker?
I find this particularly ironic considering I just wrote an article citing reasons why the market is becoming MORE Hardcore.
"Professional Clan"? I'm assuming you're older than 12, so it's possible Microsoft was just trying to save your life by making it difficult to turn your life into something this sad.
Perhaps "professional" was too serious of a description. Though I see no difference in simply wanting to game regularly and competitively with a team, it's not unlike belonging to a local bowling league, taking your sports car to the drag strip, or playing amateur sports.
If you want to do these things competitively, not as a career but as a more serious hobby, you typically use the tools that the professionals use. GoW doesn't work for the professionals, it doesn't work for the amateurs, and it's barely passable for the casual gamer who just wants to play with their friends.
"Match Making" in addition to matching you in skill also filters out anyone you've previously marked as someone you'd like to avoid. Without match making, I have to continually re-encounter those "insufferable asses" or "hyperactive children" that I've already found and identified as undesirable. And while it's impossible to filter them all out, I've found that there are a limited number of them that game the same time as me, play the same games and game modes, and are of similar skill. Once you manage to get 20-30 people on that list it becomes a rare occurrence that you encounter them... of course that all goes out the window completely if the system isn't doing the match making for you.
As for making your own matches "working just fine"... sure, if you're playing unranked. I have a group of friends, we want to be on the same team and play against another group that's similar in skill. You know... like a professional clan. There is NO easy way to do that, not even close. Basically you have to message everyone on your team to search for some specific game criteria then hope the pick the right room out of the list (and hope it's not full up by the time they get there) then if by some miracle they do manage to find the room there's a high probability that you wont all be on the same team. That is not even close to acceptable for a AAA, first party, killer app that supposedly exemplifies Xbox Live's superiority. Sorry but in a straight up ease of use and requisite feature comparison Resistance blows GoW out of the water (and I loathe Sony). Not to mention that "match making" isn't some elusive code that Bungie has in a vault somewhere, it's built right into the friggin XDK, and while it wasn't there when Halo 2 was made, it's been there LONG before GoW arrived.
The features missing from GoW aren't just annoying, it's embarrassing.
For what it's worth, I think having a whole bunch of the same games for different consoles causes trouble, and one has to look at DDR and Beatmania for evidence.
Japanese releases of DDR get different songs versus US and European releases. The games go through localization which basically winds up with songs in one country's version of a game and not another's. Imagine if that was pulled with other games: a platformer that the developer made 20 different levels to play in but only 8 of them are common to all the regions and the rest are "region exclusives."
As a DDR player I GREATLY appreciate the localization of the game. I've been a fan of the series since the arcade I worked at years ago imported a brand new 2nd Mix machine from Japan. I enjoyed the game but I always thought the music was horrible. I was quite excited when they released the "USA Mix" and the more recent "Ultramix" games on the Xbox have been fantastic. I'd much rather play DDR with tracks from Black Eyed Peas or The Prodigy then some random JPop group.
Similarly I think Guitar Hero would suck if it wasn't localized. Imagine if it was developed by a Japanese company and a majority of the tracks in the game were JPop (kind of like Guitar Freaks) the game wouldn't be nearly as popular. The music is one of the most important parts of those games. Not all localization is bad, not localizing the music in music based games would be like not dubbing or subbing the speech in an RPG. The number of people who would be interested in any "original" Japanese specific music is the same niche group that is probably used to importing stuff anyway. So what if different regions get different music. If they're getting different music is because most of the people in your region probably don't like it.
You're forgetting that the two formats don't offer the same films..
If the films I want to see in HD are mostly only available on BluRay players then I'm going to be comparing the price and features of BluRay Player A to BluRay Player B... HD-DVD wont even be a consideration.
Similarly economy cars are generally less expensive then pickups but if I need a pickup to haul building materials around I'm not even going to consider buying a sedan. Sure they're both cars used to transport people in things, but only one of them can transport the types of things I want it to.
I don't think that there is really much of a reason not to push 1080p
I can think of several... namely that higher resolution doesn't necessarily net you a better looking image. In terms of movies and pre-recorded video, sure, but in terms of games it can actually make the picture look WORSE. Why? because it takes about 150-200% the pixel pushing power to reproduce an equivalent image in 1080p instead of 720p. To get that extra power it needs to come from somewhere which means that other areas must take a hit as a result. When "pushing 1080p" other things suffer, textures get muddier, the polygon counts on character and level models have to be dropped, FSAA might get reduced or dropped, lighting and other effects are reduced or turned off, frame rates drop, etc. What you end up with is a less impressive world rendered in a resolution that really lets you see all the things it's lacking because of that higher resolution.
Gears of War is fantastic looking game, and seeing it rendered as it is today 1080p would probably look amazing but not if other things had to suffer for it. Would it be as impressive if the resolutions were higher but the textures were muddier, the AI wasn't as sharp, the lighting and particle effects were simplified, the character and level models were more blocky, etc.
My point is I'd love to play games in 1080p but not if other aspects of the game have to suffer to reach that, because quite honestly in terms of the overall image quality I consider things like textures, poly counts, particle and lighting effects, etc. far far more important to the image quality then a 1080p image. And the few 1080p games I've seen so far I think would have been better if they concentrated on those areas more as opposed to just bumping up the resolution. So if all these are things are taking a hit to reach 1080p does it really serve those of us with 1080p sets? Honestly I think 1080p in games this generation is just a hyped up buzzword I'd much rather have the game programed for 720p and upscale it to 1080p then run them have it programed natively in 1080p because the 1080p games I've see so far just didn't impress me graphically. While it's obvious that these consoles CAN produce 1080p they'd better serve graphics whores at the 720p level.
Not just the game but I think it would also depend on the editing. If you consider a typical FPS match there's lots of things happening at once. How is that presented to the spectators? do we get the same First person tunnel visions that the gamers get, are there fixed cameras that we view?
IMO if you want it to work right you have to take a look at the level design and ensure you can capture all of it and still see the action that's going on. I also think you need to have dedicated "camera men" that can go anywhere to help capture the action with an editor dictating which action to follow. I also think they need to put small Picture in Picture windows of the players faces so we can see their facial and body language. And theres no reason we can't have slow motion replays as well as commentary by people who understand the tactics, strategies, and the background of the players other notable games and records.
I think to get a feel for it a few games would have to be recorded with some time spent editing it for spectator consumption, and once they start to understand what works and what doesn't they try it live.
Some genres would work better then others, racing games for instance would be much easier to show considering it's a real life sport and they can use the same techniques used for showing the sport in real life. Most single player or turn based games would be fairly simple, as well as fighters and other games where the players share a single screen. but IMO stuff like MMOs, RTSs, Shooters, or anything where the players have their own display would take some getting used to before it would be something easily shown on TV.
The problem I've seen is that in prior attempts the producers and editors weren't gamers so they weren't really showing what people were interested in seeing. They'd show the peoples faces, or a close up of the controller, or a quick clip of the players screen and it was more of a nonsensical collage then anything else. The in game action is the most important, but you need to see a good overview, you need to see what all the different players are doing at the same time. the players faces are secondary, you need to see the person behind the on screen character but it shouldn't detract from the on screen action, just give a small view into the emotions their going through, a determined look, a look of disbelief when they die, or excitement when they score a point etc.
Part of the punishment for sex offenders is that they must live the rest of their life with the constant reminder of what they've done, and with the rest of the world knowing what they've done. The internet being anonymous allows them to escape that punishment so the idea is that they must suffer their punishment even while online.
Not that I agree with it due to it's potential to spill over onto the rest of us, nevermind the feasibility of enforcing such a system, but there is a valid reason for proposing such a "punishment"
I didn't know that, though there are other Homebrew methods beyond Action replay, like using Phantasy Star Online or Max Drive Pro... do those not work on PAL Wiis either?
I would suspect the Max Console review is a bit inaccurate... considering the shop that manufactures and sells the chip also runs the servers that host Max Console... No conflict of interests there or anything.
Also Firmware upgrades via DVD was supposedly added to the CycloWiz at the last minute, you're right on your other accounts though.
So how long till we get some homebrewed stuff for the Wii floating around?
It will be a while still. This chip doesn't allow for homebrew, just backups. They advertise it as running Gamecube Homebrew, but the Wii has been capable of that since day 1 without a chip.
I realize that it will take time. My point was that things other than a new type of controller can be revolutionary as well. I was simply pointing out that so far, the software innovations on the 360 have revolutionized the way I play games much more then the Wii remote has.
It was a counter argument to the GP who stated that the only thing the the 360 and PS3 offered were more graphics horsepower... hence the quote.
Seriously, since when has "The same, just more of it" (as with the Wii's major rivals) been revolutionary?
Because there is actually more then horsepower behind what makes the PS3 and 360 revolutionary... like an online community connection integrated directly into the console itself delivering a consistent experience across all of the games.
I own both a 360 and a Wii, and I can say without a doubt I'd rather have the Dashboard and Xbox Live features that were added to to the Xbox 360 since last generation then the Wii Remote any day of the week, graphics be damned. Things like Achievements, having instant access to a friends list, the ability to download game add-ons and demos has fundamentally changed how I play games, opened me up to new types of games I wouldn't have otherwise tried, and I think it's done so for the better. I was rarely playing any games at all when the 360 came out, gaming was being replaced with other hobbies but shortly after the 360's release I was enjoying playing video games again and I've have been since. When the Wii came out I waited in line longer then I actually played the damn thing the first week, and now it's just collecting dust. The Wii remote was fun for about an hours worth of Wii Sports but beyond that the Wii remote showed me that it works horribly for shooters, and with action/adventure games like Zelda it's pretty much a tossup. More traditional RPGs are more menu based then anything so they don't really gain anything. Racing games, the motion tracking could be better but really I'd rather have some analog control over my acceleration then a gimmicky steering wheel. If I wanted a wheel there are far superior options on the other consoles. The only way for the Wii to shine in my eyes is if they develop something NEW that utilizes the Wii remote for things that a traditional controller just can't do. Sports titles lend themselves to this but honestly I'm not a sports fan and titles like Wii Sports/Wii Play are just far far too shallow of a gaming experience to hold my attention for very long.
The difference between unattended backpacks and lonesome trashcans is that they don't advertise their presence.
What kind of terrorist makes a bomb with a giant light up image of a cartoon character? What kind of terrorist places these highly visible and attention grabbing bombs in the most visible of locations? And what kind of terrorist leaves them sitting out there out in the open glowing their prescience for weeks without detonating them?
On a whole I don't fault whoever it was that called it in. If someone sees something out of place they SHOULD call it in. I do fault the local government for blowing it so ridiculously out of proportion. Closing down major highways, tunnels and devoting every last form of city protection to investigating what is essentially nothing more then graffiti.
That's not even taking into consideration that in a city that fits the profile of the stereotypical college town NO ONE in any of the enforcement agencies had heard of the show, none of them had see the posters at the movie theaters, none of them had seen the neon green Ignignok shaped DVD case taking up shelf space at the local BestBuy or Blockbuster, or seen any TV advertisements, or spent any time watching TV with the hundred of thousands of college students in Boston.
Perhaps the worst bit is if it WAS actually a terrorist attack and those actually were bombs... they'd all be dead because it took them weeks before they even noticed these vibrantly self advertising devices.
It's a threat to my continuing to use the Windows family of products... I'll stick with XP for a while but once I'm ready to upgrade I'm either going Mac or Linux.
This pretty much describes my workplace. Users had fairly high levels of control over their PCs and unrestricted internet access. Someone quit and decided to steal some files and the lockdown began. CD drives disabled, background applications that monitor USB storage transfers LIVE and alerts IT of any traffic and a ridiculously restrictive internet filter. at least 1 out of every 4 site that come up when I'm searching for code snippets or examples gets blocked because it's someones "personal page". Well gee yeah it is... but that personal page is a professional at what I'm trying to make my application do. of course other sites like espn, youtube, google video, any kind of web-mail etc. have been blocked as well. even better is the computers automatically lock out after 5 minutes of being idle, at least you get plenty of opportunities to memorize that large random string that is your password. 6 months later and most of the good employees have left leaving the useless and the cronies. at least they haven't blocked/.... yet.
The DS isn't a home console and the PS1 outsold the PS2 when it first came out.
I'm not sure the point the article is trying to make... new console adoption is always slow going despite launch day sales numbers... the NES outsold the SNES for a while, the SNES outsold the N64 and PS1 for a while, the PS1 outsold the PS2 for a while, and **SHOCK*** the PS2 is outselling it's replacements... say it aint so!
The DS IS a next gen hand held... it's outselling it's last gen counterpart the GBA... but it's also not a recently released console... when it was it was being outsold by it's cheaper last gen cousin. Even still the DS while a game machine is a completely different market then home consoles. That's like being surprised that the iPod is outselling BluRay players... no really?
I have a PS1 and a PS2 not that I play them much aside from Guitar Hero (which doesn't work with the PS3), I'd rather use my original hardware to play those games anyway considering the compatibility problems I've seen. I might be more interested if it actually improved the quality of the graphics. As for PS3 games there seems to be a few good titles on the horizon but nothing I'm interested in right now that I can't already get on platforms I already own (PC/Xbox 360).
So for the most part this feature isn't needed which means it's value is $0 at present, maybe worth more down the road when better PS3 exclusives arrive.
CD's, SACD's, DVD-Audio discs
I don't own any SACDs and I have no less then 5 other devices in my home theater setup that can play both CDs and DVD-As.
So this feature isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
It can rip audio discs to it's HD, no PC needed. I can play those ripped files and any other ones transferred to it's HD, or memorystick or external device.
I'd rather not, I use a custom configuration of EAC and LAME to rip my CDs just how I like them, having them on my PS3 doesn't exactly help me stream them to my Xbox1 and Xbox 360 for use in XBMC or as background music in games, and it's not like the PS3 allows for custom soundtracks... I can't burn MP3 discs for my car nor can I transfer them to my Verizon phone to listen to when I go on trips... so what good is having them on my PS3's hard drive? Even still, I can already do this with my modified Xbox 1 and my unmodified Xbox 360.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
It plays DVD video and Blu Ray video
I have no less then 5 other devices that can play DVD movies, I don't own any blu-ray discs, nor do I have any interest in supporting either blue laser disc format.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
It plays video files off the HD, and external device/card. Got PSP formatted files, it will play them.
Again something my Modified Xbox 1 and unmodified Xbox 360 can do. Well the 360 can't do PSP formated files but I don't have a PSP so that's not a problem.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
It's got a built in web browser with full keyboard and mouse support.
I had that back on my Sega Saturn, again on my Sega Dreamcast, again my Nintendo Wii (though without K/M support) browsing on a console has never interested me, the only good reason I've ever had to use a browser in my home theater is to look up strategy guides while I play games. and I can't play games and browse at the same time on the PS3 (it might actually be useful if I could). For those rare instances I bring my laptop into my theater... though it's not like anyone is all that comfortable using a keyboard and mouse while sitting on a couch.
At least it can browse at a reasonable resolution so it'd be decent for web based apps or showing Google/YouTube videos to guests so I'll give it $40 for this one
Chat is built in too.
Unless it connects to efnet or Xbox Live I'm not interested = $0
It runs Linux, and running Linux on it is a supported function, it's not an unsupported hack That adds even more functionality to the thing. Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, Nethack.
I'm not a Linux junkie so this sort of things doesn't really intrigue me. It did pique my interest a bit when it was first announced because it might have been useful for running emulators or a media center application (though it's not like I can't already do that with my moded Xbox 1) particularly because it would do it without modification, but as it is right now the emulators aren't in a playable state
The UMD was problematic for a number of reasons, large power requirements causing short battery life, long loading times, lots of moving/fragile parts, not to mention discs are a whole lot more bulky and much less rugged then something like a cartridge. And that's not even considering the manufacturing costs that ultimately get passed on to the consumer.
I'm not saying cartridges are any better, but Sony could have just as easily gone with an iPod model allowing PSP owners to download their games and movies, maybe even have download stations in game stores for B&M purchases. It would have had just as good security no additional manufacturing woes, much more reliability in the system, longer battery life, shorter/non existent loading times and it probably wouldn't have effected the cost much at all. Not to mention it makes it a whole lot more portable because you don't have to tote around discs, just the device.
This article also reminds me of the Blind Mortal Kombat Master. Which I found particularly interesting because I used to be good enough at MK3 that I would frequently take people on while blindfolded as a party trick; though I would imagine it's much more difficult to learn the game without your vision. Thinking of other games I'm sure the Space Channel 5 Series (originally on the Dreamcast and later on the Gamecube and PS2) would work very well for the blind without any modification, being that it's a Simon says/music driven game.
I've often contemplated how my life would be different if I just lost so much as a thumb or my vision or my hearing etc. Gaming makes up a significant portion of my pastimes and it's physical requirements are steep. I cherish the fact that I have these abilities. I think it's great that there are things out there that would expand the accessibility of games. Though it's a difficult task, and I'd hate to be limited to just MK3 and Space Channel 5 it's nice to know that there are people like Benheck who will make controllers for the one handed and the Audio games for those who are blind. I've been debating trying my hand at developing a small XBLA type game... now I think I might try to design a game that could be enjoyed by the sighted as well as the blind.
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I'd agree with your analysis of GoW. I'll be the first one to say that the actual gameplay and controls are fantastic. Gears plays like I'd expect a AAA shooter to play. while not the first game to use a cover system they are the first game to do it well IMO. and the Single player/co-op modes as you said are extremely enjoyable and very well done. I would have appreciated a little more depth to the story, even if it came in the form of a video at the beginning of the game but that's not a big deal.
Its simply the online play that is problematic and again it's not even the gameplay, or level design, those are both very solid IMO, it's all in the lobby, match making, and customization. Once you're in a game with the teams how you want them it's quite fun online, but unless you're prepared to go 19 rounds per game it's over as soon as it starts and you have to go back to jumping through fiery hoops to find your team mates and get the game setup again.
The game mechanics are solid, but playing online you spend more time setting up the match then you do actually playing, and once you're playing it usually isn't setup the way you were hoping.
Your definition certainly makes sense, I was using "casual" as the gaming antithesis of "hardcore" in my argument; someone who plays games causally, rather then someone who plays causal games. Perhaps a better term would be to describe them as an "occasional" or "light" gamer.
I guess now the question is... does "hardcore" mean what we think it means? That is to say does "hardcore" mean someone who plays hardcore games, or someone who plays games, hardcore? I would think it means the latter, and if that is the definition, I stand by my assertion that the number of gamers who play with hardcore frequency is higher now then it's ever been. I find it interesting that you cite the community behind the hardcore casual game crowd, as I strongly believe it's the community aspects of modern games that are the driving force behind creating more and more hardcore gamers.
DDR was created by the Japanese... they like their extra ridiculously difficult/impossible modes. The hardest settings/songs on DDR are far and wide more difficult then the hardest settings/songs on GH (I've played them all).
Not to mention as long as you've got some good rhythm, dexterity and time to practice you can perfect most GH tracks on the hardest setting. DDR has far more strenuous physical requirements on top of that, not to mention the precision needs to come from your legs and feet, which are far more difficult to make precise movements with then your fingers, particularly when you're exhausted from essentially running in place.
On another note I think you've helped identify why GH is so much more popular then DDR. It has nothing to do with the genre or the fact that you play with your hands instead of your feet, and everything to do with the stigma that dancing is lame but playing the guitar is cool. Same can be said for JPop/Techno vs Rock/Metal respectivly.
I think the point the GP was trying to make (and I agree with) is that contrary to what the article is claiming "hardcore" shouldn't be based on the types of games being purchased. IMO "hardcore" describes the amount of time someone sets aside out of the rest of their life to game.
If you only ever play Happy Feet, Cars, Open Season, and countless other cheap poorly rated franchised games but you play them every waking moment, I'd say that you're a hardcore gamer.
A casual gamer doesn't pre-order games, I'm sorry, casual implies that they were walking by the store and saw a cardboard cut out that drew them in, or played the Guitar Hero kiosk and decided it might be fun for their next party. The kind of person that maybe plays a game among friends every other week or so. The kind of person who would pre-order a game, particularly something that is far below AAA status, the kind of person who would wait in line for hours to play WiiSports and Zelda, these are not casual gamers, these are hardcore gamers.
Lets change the context... would you consider someone any less an alcoholic if all they drank was cheap mass produced beer? Uncultured maybe, but certainly not any less "hardcore". By the same measure if someone drank every night after work would you consider them a "casual" drinker? Would you consider someone who waited outside the liquor store before they opened a "casual" drinker?
I find this particularly ironic considering I just wrote an article citing reasons why the market is becoming MORE Hardcore.
this one does
If you want to do these things competitively, not as a career but as a more serious hobby, you typically use the tools that the professionals use. GoW doesn't work for the professionals, it doesn't work for the amateurs, and it's barely passable for the casual gamer who just wants to play with their friends.
I'd like to disagree... on all accounts.
"Match Making" in addition to matching you in skill also filters out anyone you've previously marked as someone you'd like to avoid. Without match making, I have to continually re-encounter those "insufferable asses" or "hyperactive children" that I've already found and identified as undesirable. And while it's impossible to filter them all out, I've found that there are a limited number of them that game the same time as me, play the same games and game modes, and are of similar skill. Once you manage to get 20-30 people on that list it becomes a rare occurrence that you encounter them... of course that all goes out the window completely if the system isn't doing the match making for you.
As for making your own matches "working just fine"... sure, if you're playing unranked. I have a group of friends, we want to be on the same team and play against another group that's similar in skill. You know... like a professional clan. There is NO easy way to do that, not even close. Basically you have to message everyone on your team to search for some specific game criteria then hope the pick the right room out of the list (and hope it's not full up by the time they get there) then if by some miracle they do manage to find the room there's a high probability that you wont all be on the same team. That is not even close to acceptable for a AAA, first party, killer app that supposedly exemplifies Xbox Live's superiority. Sorry but in a straight up ease of use and requisite feature comparison Resistance blows GoW out of the water (and I loathe Sony). Not to mention that "match making" isn't some elusive code that Bungie has in a vault somewhere, it's built right into the friggin XDK, and while it wasn't there when Halo 2 was made, it's been there LONG before GoW arrived.
The features missing from GoW aren't just annoying, it's embarrassing.
Similarly I think Guitar Hero would suck if it wasn't localized. Imagine if it was developed by a Japanese company and a majority of the tracks in the game were JPop (kind of like Guitar Freaks) the game wouldn't be nearly as popular. The music is one of the most important parts of those games. Not all localization is bad, not localizing the music in music based games would be like not dubbing or subbing the speech in an RPG. The number of people who would be interested in any "original" Japanese specific music is the same niche group that is probably used to importing stuff anyway. So what if different regions get different music. If they're getting different music is because most of the people in your region probably don't like it.
You're forgetting that the two formats don't offer the same films..
If the films I want to see in HD are mostly only available on BluRay players then I'm going to be comparing the price and features of BluRay Player A to BluRay Player B... HD-DVD wont even be a consideration.
Similarly economy cars are generally less expensive then pickups but if I need a pickup to haul building materials around I'm not even going to consider buying a sedan. Sure they're both cars used to transport people in things, but only one of them can transport the types of things I want it to.
Not just the game but I think it would also depend on the editing. If you consider a typical FPS match there's lots of things happening at once. How is that presented to the spectators? do we get the same First person tunnel visions that the gamers get, are there fixed cameras that we view?
IMO if you want it to work right you have to take a look at the level design and ensure you can capture all of it and still see the action that's going on. I also think you need to have dedicated "camera men" that can go anywhere to help capture the action with an editor dictating which action to follow. I also think they need to put small Picture in Picture windows of the players faces so we can see their facial and body language. And theres no reason we can't have slow motion replays as well as commentary by people who understand the tactics, strategies, and the background of the players other notable games and records.
I think to get a feel for it a few games would have to be recorded with some time spent editing it for spectator consumption, and once they start to understand what works and what doesn't they try it live.
Some genres would work better then others, racing games for instance would be much easier to show considering it's a real life sport and they can use the same techniques used for showing the sport in real life. Most single player or turn based games would be fairly simple, as well as fighters and other games where the players share a single screen. but IMO stuff like MMOs, RTSs, Shooters, or anything where the players have their own display would take some getting used to before it would be something easily shown on TV.
The problem I've seen is that in prior attempts the producers and editors weren't gamers so they weren't really showing what people were interested in seeing. They'd show the peoples faces, or a close up of the controller, or a quick clip of the players screen and it was more of a nonsensical collage then anything else. The in game action is the most important, but you need to see a good overview, you need to see what all the different players are doing at the same time. the players faces are secondary, you need to see the person behind the on screen character but it shouldn't detract from the on screen action, just give a small view into the emotions their going through, a determined look, a look of disbelief when they die, or excitement when they score a point etc.
Part of the punishment for sex offenders is that they must live the rest of their life with the constant reminder of what they've done, and with the rest of the world knowing what they've done. The internet being anonymous allows them to escape that punishment so the idea is that they must suffer their punishment even while online.
Not that I agree with it due to it's potential to spill over onto the rest of us, nevermind the feasibility of enforcing such a system, but there is a valid reason for proposing such a "punishment"
I didn't know that, though there are other Homebrew methods beyond Action replay, like using Phantasy Star Online or Max Drive Pro... do those not work on PAL Wiis either?
I would suspect the Max Console review is a bit inaccurate... considering the shop that manufactures and sells the chip also runs the servers that host Max Console... No conflict of interests there or anything.
Also Firmware upgrades via DVD was supposedly added to the CycloWiz at the last minute, you're right on your other accounts though.
I realize that it will take time. My point was that things other than a new type of controller can be revolutionary as well. I was simply pointing out that so far, the software innovations on the 360 have revolutionized the way I play games much more then the Wii remote has.
It was a counter argument to the GP who stated that the only thing the the 360 and PS3 offered were more graphics horsepower... hence the quote.
I own both a 360 and a Wii, and I can say without a doubt I'd rather have the Dashboard and Xbox Live features that were added to to the Xbox 360 since last generation then the Wii Remote any day of the week, graphics be damned. Things like Achievements, having instant access to a friends list, the ability to download game add-ons and demos has fundamentally changed how I play games, opened me up to new types of games I wouldn't have otherwise tried, and I think it's done so for the better. I was rarely playing any games at all when the 360 came out, gaming was being replaced with other hobbies but shortly after the 360's release I was enjoying playing video games again and I've have been since. When the Wii came out I waited in line longer then I actually played the damn thing the first week, and now it's just collecting dust. The Wii remote was fun for about an hours worth of Wii Sports but beyond that the Wii remote showed me that it works horribly for shooters, and with action/adventure games like Zelda it's pretty much a tossup. More traditional RPGs are more menu based then anything so they don't really gain anything. Racing games, the motion tracking could be better but really I'd rather have some analog control over my acceleration then a gimmicky steering wheel. If I wanted a wheel there are far superior options on the other consoles. The only way for the Wii to shine in my eyes is if they develop something NEW that utilizes the Wii remote for things that a traditional controller just can't do. Sports titles lend themselves to this but honestly I'm not a sports fan and titles like Wii Sports/Wii Play are just far far too shallow of a gaming experience to hold my attention for very long.
The difference between unattended backpacks and lonesome trashcans is that they don't advertise their presence.
What kind of terrorist makes a bomb with a giant light up image of a cartoon character? What kind of terrorist places these highly visible and attention grabbing bombs in the most visible of locations? And what kind of terrorist leaves them sitting out there out in the open glowing their prescience for weeks without detonating them?
On a whole I don't fault whoever it was that called it in. If someone sees something out of place they SHOULD call it in. I do fault the local government for blowing it so ridiculously out of proportion. Closing down major highways, tunnels and devoting every last form of city protection to investigating what is essentially nothing more then graffiti.
That's not even taking into consideration that in a city that fits the profile of the stereotypical college town NO ONE in any of the enforcement agencies had heard of the show, none of them had see the posters at the movie theaters, none of them had seen the neon green Ignignok shaped DVD case taking up shelf space at the local BestBuy or Blockbuster, or seen any TV advertisements, or spent any time watching TV with the hundred of thousands of college students in Boston.
Perhaps the worst bit is if it WAS actually a terrorist attack and those actually were bombs... they'd all be dead because it took them weeks before they even noticed these vibrantly self advertising devices.
It's a threat to my continuing to use the Windows family of products... I'll stick with XP for a while but once I'm ready to upgrade I'm either going Mac or Linux.
mod parent up^
/. ... yet.
This pretty much describes my workplace. Users had fairly high levels of control over their PCs and unrestricted internet access. Someone quit and decided to steal some files and the lockdown began. CD drives disabled, background applications that monitor USB storage transfers LIVE and alerts IT of any traffic and a ridiculously restrictive internet filter. at least 1 out of every 4 site that come up when I'm searching for code snippets or examples gets blocked because it's someones "personal page". Well gee yeah it is... but that personal page is a professional at what I'm trying to make my application do. of course other sites like espn, youtube, google video, any kind of web-mail etc. have been blocked as well. even better is the computers automatically lock out after 5 minutes of being idle, at least you get plenty of opportunities to memorize that large random string that is your password. 6 months later and most of the good employees have left leaving the useless and the cronies. at least they haven't blocked
The DS isn't a home console and the PS1 outsold the PS2 when it first came out.
I'm not sure the point the article is trying to make... new console adoption is always slow going despite launch day sales numbers... the NES outsold the SNES for a while, the SNES outsold the N64 and PS1 for a while, the PS1 outsold the PS2 for a while, and **SHOCK*** the PS2 is outselling it's replacements... say it aint so!
The DS IS a next gen hand held... it's outselling it's last gen counterpart the GBA... but it's also not a recently released console... when it was it was being outsold by it's cheaper last gen cousin. Even still the DS while a game machine is a completely different market then home consoles. That's like being surprised that the iPod is outselling BluRay players... no really?
I have a PS1 and a PS2 not that I play them much aside from Guitar Hero (which doesn't work with the PS3), I'd rather use my original hardware to play those games anyway considering the compatibility problems I've seen. I might be more interested if it actually improved the quality of the graphics. As for PS3 games there seems to be a few good titles on the horizon but nothing I'm interested in right now that I can't already get on platforms I already own (PC/Xbox 360).
So for the most part this feature isn't needed which means it's value is $0 at present, maybe worth more down the road when better PS3 exclusives arrive.
I don't own any SACDs and I have no less then 5 other devices in my home theater setup that can play both CDs and DVD-As.
So this feature isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
I'd rather not, I use a custom configuration of EAC and LAME to rip my CDs just how I like them, having them on my PS3 doesn't exactly help me stream them to my Xbox1 and Xbox 360 for use in XBMC or as background music in games, and it's not like the PS3 allows for custom soundtracks... I can't burn MP3 discs for my car nor can I transfer them to my Verizon phone to listen to when I go on trips... so what good is having them on my PS3's hard drive? Even still, I can already do this with my modified Xbox 1 and my unmodified Xbox 360.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
I have no less then 5 other devices that can play DVD movies, I don't own any blu-ray discs, nor do I have any interest in supporting either blue laser disc format.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
Again something my Modified Xbox 1 and unmodified Xbox 360 can do. Well the 360 can't do PSP formated files but I don't have a PSP so that's not a problem.
This feature definitely isn't needed at all which means it's value is $0
I had that back on my Sega Saturn, again on my Sega Dreamcast, again my Nintendo Wii (though without K/M support) browsing on a console has never interested me, the only good reason I've ever had to use a browser in my home theater is to look up strategy guides while I play games. and I can't play games and browse at the same time on the PS3 (it might actually be useful if I could). For those rare instances I bring my laptop into my theater... though it's not like anyone is all that comfortable using a keyboard and mouse while sitting on a couch.
At least it can browse at a reasonable resolution so it'd be decent for web based apps or showing Google/YouTube videos to guests so I'll give it $40 for this one
Unless it connects to efnet or Xbox Live I'm not interested = $0
I'm not a Linux junkie so this sort of things doesn't really intrigue me. It did pique my interest a bit when it was first announced because it might have been useful for running emulators or a media center application (though it's not like I can't already do that with my moded Xbox 1) particularly because it would do it without modification, but as it is right now the emulators aren't in a playable state
The UMD was problematic for a number of reasons, large power requirements causing short battery life, long loading times, lots of moving/fragile parts, not to mention discs are a whole lot more bulky and much less rugged then something like a cartridge. And that's not even considering the manufacturing costs that ultimately get passed on to the consumer.
I'm not saying cartridges are any better, but Sony could have just as easily gone with an iPod model allowing PSP owners to download their games and movies, maybe even have download stations in game stores for B&M purchases. It would have had just as good security no additional manufacturing woes, much more reliability in the system, longer battery life, shorter/non existent loading times and it probably wouldn't have effected the cost much at all. Not to mention it makes it a whole lot more portable because you don't have to tote around discs, just the device.
have you tried selection any of the items on that dashboard menu... most 360 kiosks have 5 or 6 demos on them these days.
This article also reminds me of the Blind Mortal Kombat Master. Which I found particularly interesting because I used to be good enough at MK3 that I would frequently take people on while blindfolded as a party trick; though I would imagine it's much more difficult to learn the game without your vision. Thinking of other games I'm sure the Space Channel 5 Series (originally on the Dreamcast and later on the Gamecube and PS2) would work very well for the blind without any modification, being that it's a Simon says/music driven game.
I've often contemplated how my life would be different if I just lost so much as a thumb or my vision or my hearing etc. Gaming makes up a significant portion of my pastimes and it's physical requirements are steep. I cherish the fact that I have these abilities. I think it's great that there are things out there that would expand the accessibility of games. Though it's a difficult task, and I'd hate to be limited to just MK3 and Space Channel 5 it's nice to know that there are people like Benheck who will make controllers for the one handed and the Audio games for those who are blind. I've been debating trying my hand at developing a small XBLA type game... now I think I might try to design a game that could be enjoyed by the sighted as well as the blind.